Jailbreak
by cipherninethousand
Summary: Lana Beniko has finally found the Grand Champion after five years of searching, and now she has to break her out of Arcann's vault. Spoilers for Chapter 1-3 of KOTFE.
"Coming up on the drop point."

As Koth brings the shuttle around to a public landing pad, Lana reaches out with the Force. She goes above the milling crowds, buzzing and full of sorrow to the quiet of the Vault. In the lower levels there are people. Awake, talking, working like good little drones.

Further up, then.

The whisper of people nearly disappears in the upper level – it's there, but small and almost unheard as though they are far away. And so is she. "Good. They didn't move her."

"You really think Arcann was gonna move her?"

"You never know." Lana says.

She stands from where she knelt on the floor, brushing dirt from her knees. Lana presses the button on her transmitter, so it beeps once at her and once at Koth in the front. Radio silence until she finds Nestani, and then they will regroup. Koth opens the hatch; Lana takes a short leap to the street below, watching the shuttle until it leaves her sight. Lana pulls down her hood before she joins the crowd. There are no skytroopers in her line of sight, but no need to draw attention beforehand. The crowd meanders forward, and Lana steps between them as quick as she can without being suspicious, till she reaches the wide walkway that leads up to Arcann's prison, plain durasteel against the gold and glass of the rest of Spire's buildings.

Here, the transmitter at her wrist flashes at her. No sound, a quick pattern in morse code. L-E-F-T, D-O-W-N.

Off to the side. Another street, this one narrower than the thoroughfare Lana's on now – a quick glance to the left, then right before she slips down the street. It leads to an alley beneath the prison as well as a grate. Teeseven whistles impatiently from beside it.

"I know, I know. I'm late." He whistles again. "How are we getting in?"

The droid rolls forward before pivoting to face the grate. Now Lana notices it's loose. Teeseven has taken his torch to the bottom half and cut it almost completely out, so that it just needs a nudge.

" _No_."

/THIS, OR SITH WALKS IN FRONT LOBBY. T7=BETTER IDEA + STEALTH./

Lana clenches her fist before she says, "Please tell me it's not a waste pipe."

/PASSAGE=MAINTENANCE. SITH GO QUICKLY!/ And with Teeseven urging her in, Lana does exactly that. She kicks out the bottom half of the grate and crawls in. No sooner than she's inside does the droid complain that Lana needs to hold the grate in place while he welds it back. "We don't have time for this."

Teeseven rocks back and forth, insisting that the skytroopers will see if he doesn't. "Fine." She mutters. "But hurry!" The droid nearly burns her fingers in the process, but it's enough to make the grate hold for now. He reminds her, impatiently that he will see her inside.

-...-

 _Later,_ Lana thinks, _I need to thank T7 for his help._

Crawling through the duct work had not been her idea, though it's far better than slogging through skytrooper patrols to reach the hunter. She can see a vent up ahead (is that movement?), so she stops, waiting until she hears the guards clink down the hall. The tiny holo-map that Teeseven had programmed into her transmitter guides her another few meters up the duct, to a vent just large enough that Lana can drop down to the floor, kicked open after a quick scan for guards.

She lands on a wide catwalk, where Teeseven beeps smugly from behind her. Lana says nothing, but marches straight to the end of the catwalk – there are dozens of carbonite slabs suspended from rods around the circular room. One has been mounted just beyond the edge of the catwalk on sliders to pull it forward.

It's her.

Unlike most carbonite, Nestani is not frozen reaching outward. Her hands are at her sides. Her face is tranquil.

/BOUNTY HUNTER = WEAK VITALS. SITH = HURRY!/

The declaration startles Lana from her contemplation. She reaches for the control pad, calling the slab to her. Teeseven rattles off the same code that Lana's been memorizing for weeks, and it is punched in with stabbing fingers. The carbonite begins to melt. "Wake up. We have to go."

She checks behind her one more time, then yanks the vial with Nestani's cure from her belt.

The carbonite continues melting – Nestani's face is now its normal green, her tattoos are visible, and her dark hair is coming loose. It melts down her neck. Her shoulders.

"Don't try to move. You're dying. I may have your cure, but I'm not going to lie. This will hurt." Lana says, before pulling the trigger on the syringe.

Immediately Nestani's face contorts in agony, lips pulling back from her teeth and eyes squeezing shut. The carbonite has melted nearly down to her feet now. When it does, she pitches forward, groaning, barely able to catch herself as she hits the floor. Her arms are still too weak to hold her weight – Nestani collapses, but rolls over to look around.

"That wasn't quite so bad."

Nestani sees Lana, and grins. It's more of a grimace, but she tries. "Ugh. Lana...? Am I glad to see you. Not sure why there are so many of you, but..." She grimaces again.

"Let's table any thank yous until I've got you fully recovered and off world. Gear up, quickly." Lana tells her, a hand jerked towards a chest behind her.

Nestani rolls back over to wobble back on her feet. If there was time Lana would give her the full hour that's needed to cure the hibernation sickness, but they need to go and now. Nestani limps to the chest and pulls out her blasters, her armor (Lana has to help her with that), and shoves the rest of her kit into the rucksack at the bottom. She's a great deal steadier after her armor's in place. Still, Nestani's got to be a little woozy because she just now notices Teeseven beeping away in the corner.

"Is that a Republic model?"

"T7-01. He's agreed to help rescue you."

Nestani grumbles, "Not a very big crew."

"Yes, well it's the best I could manage. It will have to be enough. The Empire and Republic have all but fallen to the man who imprisoned you."

"Don't say it—"

"You're our last hope."

There's not a bit of happiness in her face now, though it will have to do. Once Lana's sure that she's recovered and safely off world they can worry about the bounty hunter's grievances. "Told you not to say it."

The door hisses open; blaster fire rings out to kill whatever response Lana was going to give. She ignites her lightsaber. Nestani pulls her blasters from her hip.

"Come on!"


End file.
